Dresden 2020 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 16: Poster IV

BP 16.3: Poster

Dienstag, 17. März 2020, 14:00–16:00, P2/EG

Synchronization of flagella at finite Reynolds numbers in viscoelastic fluids — •Chaojie Mo and Dmitry Fedosov — Institute of Complex Systems, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich 52428, Germany

Recent experimental and numerical studies show that viscoelasticity can significantly promote clustering of sperm cells, implying its key role for the behavior of microswimmers. To better understand the effects of viscoelasticity, we conduct numerical simulations of the synchronization of two parallel 2-D flagella, where inertial effects, flagellum elasticity and fluid viscoelasticity are taken into account. We find that the characteristic time for synchronization due to inertia scales as τ^s ∝ 1/(fRe). In addition, in-phase and anti-phase synchronization can be achieved through the competition between fluid inertial effects and other factors, such as flagellum elasticity, viscoelasticity and compressibility. The fluid viscoelasticity leads to very strong synchronization forces at large beating amplitudes and De≫ 1. Viscoelasticity-induced synchronization generally requires a lower output energy and does not impede the swimming speed. Therefore, a viscoelasticity of suspending medium can promote synchronization by a significant enhancement of the synchronization forces. This can be an advantage for the synchronized sperm cells, as it facilitates their migration.